So few people take the time to get to know themselves. To become their own best friend. I would bet that a good 80% of the population out there wouldn't be able to spend more than 10 minutes in a room completely alone with absolutely no entertainment at all. No radio, no books, no television. Nothing. Without the ability to love yourself. Without taking the time to know who you are and what it is you are bringing to a relationship, you stand a very little chance of finding

the person who will help bring happiness and joy to you. You stand a very small chance of finding the love of a lifetime.

The most important thing you can do to attract the love of a lifetime is spend time with yourself. Take the time to get to know yourself. Become your own best friend. Learn what makes you tick. Your likes, is likes, reactions, habits, desires, and sorrows. Take the time to spend with yourself learning who you are. What you are. How you became that way. Here are a few things you can do to really begin to develop a relationship with yourself and learn to develop a deep love for the person you are. Not an ego based cocky love as though you are everything. But instead, a healthy deep rooted love for the person you are. For the unique, beautiful, powerful, incredible being that you are.

1. Create a list of all of your positive traits. Take the time to create a list, on paper, of all of your

positive traits. List everything you like and love about yourself. What do other people say are your strong, positive traits? Take the time to add to the list every single day. Add at least one new thing a day. Add new things as you realize them. It can be as simple as the way you walk or your smile. The more you do this, the more you will be able to see about yourself. You may even amaze yourself at how great of a person you already are.

2. Take the time to also evaluate your weaknesses and what you would consider negative traits. It is important to do this from a stand point of evaluation. We can sometimes be our own worst enemy and critic. This is not about judging who you are. This process is about taking a honest look at yourself and what needs work yet. Without seeing this about yourself, you can't work on those things that need improvement. That is the great thing about this. Once you know it is a weakness, you now have the option of doing something about it or not. You can't fix something until you know it needs fixed. So few people want to evaluate themselves from this perspective because as humans, we don't want to admit what needs work. However, if you are truly on a path of power and improvement, you must. As I say, you can't get there from not here, and not here is where you are if you don't know where here is. Take the time to do this, but be easy on yourself.

3. Go out and find things that scare you. After you find things that are outside your comfort zone or things that scare you, do them. Push your boundaries. The more you step outside what is comfortable, and the more you do things that are not normal for you, the more you will begin to develop a deep healthy love for yourself. You will begin to be amazed at what you are capable of. Your confidence level and self-esteem will shoot through the roof and you will want to do bigger and better things.

4. Know that you are already perfect just as you are. Realize that you are deserving of the love of a lifetime. Realize that you are an incredible and amazing person just as you are. Develop your own standard for yourself and ignore what others believe to be true. If they knew, would they be so miserable? Learn not to blame yourself for things or criticize yourself so easily. God created us all perfectly. When we say that we need to work on things, what that means is that there are things about us that stop us from creating the results we want in our lives. However, we are already perfect for being able to create our lives exactly as they are right now. We are perfect, right now, for something, and someone, right now, as we are. The real question is whether or not that right now is the right now you want for the rest of your life, or if you want a better right now.

5. Learn to see the best in everyone and everything. Learn to recognize the natural beauty in everything and everyone. Make your happiness the number one goal in your life. By learning to see the beauty, and the joy, and the incredible wonderfulness in everything and every moment you will begin to grow happier by every single moment of your life.

6. Stop taking responsibility for making other people happy. Your own happiness must be your number one priority. Our society has taught us to think about others, and we are often criticized for not thinking about others or looked down upon for being selfish. Though this doesn't have to be a selfish thing, you must learn to care for yourself and take care of yourself first, then worry about taking care of others. How can you ever expect to give more to others if you don't first give to yourself. If you only have ten bucks, and you need that to eat, you can't give it away no matter how much you may want to. It would only be a bad thing for you. you must learn to take care of you. After you get good at that, goodness and happiness will over flow from you. Then, and only then, will you be able to help others realize happiness on their own.

7. Know right here and right now, that you cannot change or control anyone else or anyone elses life. You have control over your own life, and that is all. Happiness is a choice. We all choose how to respond to every single thing in our lives that happens to us. We choose to be happy, or sad, or joyful, or disappointed. We must learn to make a conscious decision in every single moment of our lives to be happy. This one realization alone could change everything in your life. Take care of your own happiness, and choose to be happy. Remember, every minute spent angry, or sad, or upset, or anything like that is a minute we had a chance to be happy, and a minute that we will never get back and have the opportunity have happiness in.

Learning to love and appreciate yourself is the biggest and most important thing you can do for yourself and to attract the love of your dreams. If you wish to find the love of a lifetime, start by looking within yourself first. That is where it all begins, and without starting there, you are doomed. There is no greater love, and more valuable love than the love you have for yourself. After all, you do spend 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year with yourself for your entire life. Who better to love you and for you to learn to love than yourself.